Facing close to $750,000 in fines for taking 381 megalitres of water during an embargo, irrigator Anthony Barlow pleads guilty to water offences, but maintains the former water minister told him he could pump water "unless told otherwise"....

The Murray-Darling royal commission report was full of fury. But both sides of politics have no sense of urgency and bureaucrats are serving as scapegoats for negligence overseen and endorsed by government, writes Laura Tingle....

The Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission accuses Minister for Environment and Water David Speirs of breaching his state's ministerial code of conduct over a deal with the Federal Government on environmental flows....

The Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission finds Commonwealth officials committed gross maladministration, negligence and unlawful actions in drawing up the multi-billion-dollar deal to save Australia's largest river system....